Espionage case: Suspended IAS officer seeks bail

New Delhi: Suspended IAS officer Ravi Inder
Singh, accused of passing official information from Home
Ministry to unauthorised persons, on Thursday sought bail from a
Delhi court saying he was innocent and can account for all his
assets.

"The movable and immovable assets to the tune of Rs 1.92
crore, which are either in the name of the accused or in the
name of his wife Amrita Kaur, are all accounted for and the
Government of India has duly been intimated about them,"
Singh`s lawyer O P Wadhwa said.
"At best, Singh could be held guilty of negligence for
allegedly availing the accommodation provided by Vineet Kumar,
CMD of Kolkata-based Temptation Food Pvt Ltd," the defence
lawyer told Special Judge Rakesh Siddharth.

The detention of Singh, who has already been quizzed in
custody for six days, would not serve any purpose, he said.

The court asked public prosecutor Rajeev Mohan to respond
to Singh`s bail plea on December 18.

Earlier, the court had sought explanations from police
for invoking the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption
(PC) Act against the accused officer.

In addition to charges under the PC Act, police have also
booked Singh under section 468 (forgery for the purpose of
cheating) and 471 (using forged documents), 201 (causing
disappearance of evidence) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of
the IPC.

Singh, the then Director Internal Security in the Home
Ministry, along with Kumar who was allegedly acting as a
middleman for him, was arrested by Delhi Police`s Special Cell
on November 23.
The IAS officer allegedly took illegal gratification from
co-accused Kumar in the form of his lodging expenses at a
guest house here since his deputation to New Delhi from
Kolkata in January this year. He also allegedly used a car
provided by Kumar.

Kumar was also accused of acting at the behest of a US-
based telecom company to procure information relating to some
files.

A case was registered under various provisions of the
Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code dealing
with criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence against
the duo.